Comparing and Ordering Fractions Game

Comparing and Ordering Fractions - Balloons

Comparing and Ordering Fractions -Soccer

American Education Week

Being that I am on the American Education Week committee at my school and it's right around the corner, I decided to share the teacher letter along with the poster that I made.  The 91st celebration of American Education Week will take place November 12th through November 16th with a "Parent Visitation Day" on Wednesday, November 14th.  I hope it goes well for everyone and I'd love to hear what types of things you do at your schools!

American Education Week Poster

American Education Week Teacher Letter

Clouds

We just finished learning about clouds! The kids made cloud riddles and used cotton balls to make their cloud of choice. I also took real life pictures of clouds and had them guess what kind.

National gallery of art field trip

In preparation of our field trip to the National Gallery of Art, we were sent 4 beautiful books, two posters, and a bunch of resources and common core style activities! I am so impressed and excited!

Recycling

I started a recycling "center" in my own classroom to try to alleviate the recycling issue at our school.  Basically, I bought a HUGE zip lock bag and wrote "RECYCLING" on it.  We put our recycled items in the bag each day and at the end of the day a student takes it home, dumps it with their home recycling, and then brings the bag back.  The next day I give the kids an "Awesome ECOkid Award."  The students LOVE it, but we need something school wide.

N.O.W. - Number of the Week

I've been trying to make some more centers and get creative with my computer skills! Therefore, I created a "Number of the Week" activity that could really be used for any grade with some editing.  I've realized that my class' number sense is weak as well as their basic math facts, which is why they are having difficulty with a lot of the function tables and rules that go along with them.

If they see the input number is 20 and the output number as 5, they are unable to figure out how they get from 20-->5.  When I look at it, I can easily see the rule being one of two things: subtract 15 or divide by 4. I was trying to think of a way I could practice this, without having a bunch of different activities to practice each skill individually.  Finally, I came up with the idea to do a "Number of the Week" which they could try on their own, and then on Friday, we could discuss it.  To give students more freedom with it, they could even choose the number.

 I feel like this will be a good way to challenge my higher level students as well as practice the fundamentals with my lower students by just giving each group a different number to use. I hope you find this freebie helpful! I'll let you know how it works as soon as I implement it into my own classroom. Enjoy!

My life/summer

Originally this post was far better, but since I am an amateur blogger and lost it, I'll do a quick version of it...

Where I Live in Baltimore (Federal Hill)

This picture was actually taken in Canton and I thought the view of the marina/harbor was beautiful!

View from Federal Hill

A treat from the Orioles game 

(Courtesy of Zach)

My Bedroom

Love the exposed brick in our house. It really gives the place some charm and a homey feeling that you don't always get in the city.

Our Kitchen

Home Sweet Home 

Long Valley, NJ

Good old happy valley!

The house I grew up in and where my parents still live 

 

 Last year was my first year in 4th grade and boy was it a challenging one! Not only did I have to move into my new classroom and set up within the matter of days, but I also broke my ankle right around MSA time and had to get surgery! It was the most challenging 8-10 weeks of my life! Being on crutches while teaching is NOT fun!  Below you can see the pins and metal rod that will forever be in my ankle to hold it in place.

 Normally my summers are spent babysitting/nannying, however this summer the family I usually sit for didn't need me to.  I just adore the family and the twin boys, who are now in second grade, are just adorable!

Since I wasn't really working this summer, I had plenty of time to spend at the pool, the beach, spending time  with family and friends, reading, relaxing, SHOPPING, and preparing for school.

I kicked off the summer at my brother's Columbia Business School Graduation in NYC where he earned his MBA

The whole family except my sister Nikki who was still in school at UMD (yes all of us kids were/are Terps)!

Congrats to my brother and his amazing girlfriend Jess!

 Merritt Pool where I spent a lot of my summer 

A little summer project: buy patio furniture, plant flowers, and spruce up the back patio

I can't sit still so crafts were a must with all my extra time this summer

Sara, Leah, and I at our normal Thursday girls night.

During the school year I become a hermit, but I'm going to try really hard to have a little bit of a social life this year.

Sara's family has a beach house in Ocean City, MD so we took the boat out there a few times and I pretended to be the captain. 

My boyfriend Zach and I

Zach's family has a shore house in Lavallette, NJ so a lot of weekends during the summer were spent there.

Sonia, Catherine, and Christina 

(Zach's sweet nieces and sister in law)

Carter

Zach's nephew Grant on his birthday at the beach in Lavallette, NJ

Beautiful sunset in Lavallette

The girlies on the paddle board

Happy 4th of July!

Lucy's Ready!

A Philly visit for Jessica's Surprise Birthday Party

(Zach's sister and her friend Jenn)

Zach, Jess, Jason, and Keith - Sibling Love!

A trip to North Carolina with my entire family along with my aunts, uncles, and cousins on my dad's side was definitely one to remember!

My AMAZING family 

Mike, Nikki (I call her Pooky), Dad, me, and Mom

Nikki and I

My Aunt Toni who is an absolute angel!

And one with my Uncle Lou

Dad with his girls

Love my brother and sister!

My cousin Greg, my brother Mike, and my cousin Lou.

Oh and my Uncle Joe photo bombing

We went to my cousin's gym and the pool at the gym was unreal! Everything seems bigger and better in North Carolina

My cute cousins, Joseph and Marissa waiting patiently for adult swim to end 

And the obsession with my lil cousin begins! We became SO close during this trip.  I rarely get to see him and he just lights up my life. I literally spent the entire trip with him and on cloud 9. 

How can you not love that face?!

Is he not the most precious thing you've ever seen?

 I could just eat him up! Okay okay, I'm done.

All in all, it was a wonderful summer.  Not making/saving money over the summer is not a smart move considering living on a teacher's salary with my shopping addiction is not possible, however, I truly think I needed this type of summer after my crazy year last year.

I am more than excited and refreshed! Ready to start the school year strong!